1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to printed circuit boards (PCBs), and particularly, to a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and a method for mounting electronic components on a PCB.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical PCB includes a non-conductive substrate and conductive traces formed by etching metal sheets laminated onto a surface of the non-conductive substrate. The PCB is used to mechanically support electronic components attached thereon, and to electrically connect the electronic components by the use of the conductive traces. Thus, electronic components such as resistors, capacitors and integrated circuit (IC) chips can be mounted onto the substrate and interconnected by the conductive traces to constitute a functional circuit. Generally, a PCB populated with electronic components is known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).
Soldering technology is used for mounting the electronic components onto the PCB. Typically, through holes can be formed in the PCB at predetermined mounting locations for the electronic components. The electronic components are positioned above a support surface of the PCB, and conductive leads (such as pins) of the electronic components are inserted into the through holes. Then the conductive leads are electrically and mechanically fixed to soldering pads of the corresponding conductive traces with solder.
Some of the electronic components, such as one or more Hall elements, need to maintain a certain height above the PCB after being mounted. When a Hall element is positioned at an appropriate height, it is able to perform a sensing function through the so-called Hall effect. To ensure that the required heights of the Hall elements are maintained, the conductive leads of the Hall elements should be relatively long. However, when the long leads are fixed to the PCB, the reliability of the fixing is not as good as that of electronic components having short leads.
What is needed, therefore, is a PCBA that can overcome the described limitations, and what is also needed is a method for mounting electronic components on a PCB which can overcome the described limitations.